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Android Mobile: OpenJDK to Power Future Versions of the Mobile OS
The next major release of Android, Android N, will be based on Oracle’s OpenJDK instead of the Apache Harmony “clean room” implementation of Java. Many speculate that the change comes as a result of the lawsuit against Google by Oracle. OpenJDK is a free and open-source implementation of Java that is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) with a linking exception.
Oracle acquired the rights to Java as a result of its purchase of Sun Microsystems in January 2010. Immediately after that Oracle sued Google for copyright and patent infringement for how Java was used in Android.
Up until now, Android had been using the Apache Harmony implementation of Java. Harmony was a project that started in 2005 under the Apache Software Foundation. It was an open-source implementation of Java that, at the time, was fully sanctioned by Sun Microsystem. The Harmony project was shut down in 2011 after Oracle acquired the rights to Java.
By using Oracle’s OpenJDK, Google will be removing an implementation of Java code from Android that Oracle found fault with. For future releases of Android, Android N and beyond, Oracle should no longer have a case of infringement, or at least Google should be able to reduce the extent of damages.
Other than for legal reasons, at least in the short term, technically the move to OpenJDK is a winner. Andreas Gal, an entrepreneur and former CTO of Mozilla , in an interview with eWeek said that “there is basically no technical advantage in using Harmony. It’s a strictly less complete and less correct version of Sun’s original implementation. Why did Android invest all this effort to duplicate Sun’s open source Java standard classes?”
But the road going forward isn’t clear. Gal notes that by using OpenJDK Google is agreeing to following the rules for Java as laid down by Oracle. Gal writes that “OpenJDK is about as open as a prison. You can vote on how high the walls are, and you can even help build the walls, but if you are ever forced to walk into it, Oracle alone will decided when and whether you can leave. Oracle owns much of the roadmap of OpenJDK, and via compatibility requirements, trademarks, existing agreements, and API copyright lawsuits (Oracle vs Google) Oracle is pretty much in full control where OpenJDK is headed.”
